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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. Every week, a few of our favourite writers read out their pieces for you.

This week, Kate Andrews has penned the cover piece and talks

about how Biden can heal America's divide. Here she is. Having won more votes than any presidential

candidate in American history, Joe Biden might have hoped for a triumphant entry into Washington.

Instead, he traveled to the inauguration in a private plane to deliver his speech to more members of the National Guard than guests.

A combination of the pandemic and security fears ruin normal proceedings.

The event had become a target, crowds too great a risk.

The emptiness embodies the problem Biden needs to overcome, not just the spats between left and right-wing

politicians, but the unraveling of trust in American politics. His challenge goes beyond governing.

It is the question of how to unite the country, or at least how to repair the social fabric,

so that the scenes of the past few months are remembered as a freak incident in U.S. history,

rather than the start of a new, dangerous era. The new president seems to understand the weight

of this task, making unity the main focus of his inauguration speech. My whole soul is in this,

Biden said, bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. Yet if you were to handpick

the political hero American needs in these fragile times, the gaff-prone 78-year-old wouldn't seem

the obvious first choice. Much of Biden's political past is defined by failure and rejection.

After his surprise Senate victory in 1972, when age 29, he beat establishment

Republican J.K. LaBoggs for the seat in Delaware, he had not won but two failed bids

for the presidency. Even Barack Obama, whom he served as vice president for eight years, made

it pretty clear he wanted Hillary Clinton to succeed him in 2016. Former Senator Ted

Kaufman once said that his friend Biden was the unluckiest and luckiest person he knew,

...